_________________Gob: "My God. What is this feeling?"
Michael: "You know, the feeling that you're feeling is just what many of us call ... a 'feeling.'
Gob: "It's not like envy, or even hungry."
Michael: "Could it be love?"
Gob: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite -- it's like my heart is getting hard."

Wallace is like 78yrs old. Williams was consistently referred to as the worst guard in the playoffs, in a league dominated by guards this is not a good sign. Their big man sucks.

AND they have no room in the cap to sign anybody and even if they did no one would want play there because nobody wants to live in Cleveland. This is not Lebron's fault, I hear he tried to get Bosh to come to Cleveland but he didn't want to do it. Not Lebron's fault. So he left. Smart move. And no he doesn't owe the city a damm thing, it's not his fault that it's a laughing stock in the NBA. The Cavs/city should be lucky they had him at all.

_________________Gob: "My God. What is this feeling?"
Michael: "You know, the feeling that you're feeling is just what many of us call ... a 'feeling.'
Gob: "It's not like envy, or even hungry."
Michael: "Could it be love?"
Gob: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite -- it's like my heart is getting hard."

_________________Gob: "My God. What is this feeling?"
Michael: "You know, the feeling that you're feeling is just what many of us call ... a 'feeling.'
Gob: "It's not like envy, or even hungry."
Michael: "Could it be love?"
Gob: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite -- it's like my heart is getting hard."

So now people are cheering Dan Gilbert’s manifesto tearing apart James, but no one contributed more to what the world witnessed on Thursday night than the owner’s enabling of James and his inner circle for seven years. Gilbert is the biggest con going, a man who makes his fortune peddling mortgages, and he’ll make his next on casinos in downtown Cleveland. He sells illusions for a living, and now he’s selling the biggest of all: that he’s a victim here, that James betrayed everyone. That’s a lie, and no one ought to dare buy it.

Everyone searching for a scapegoat here – Mike Brown, Danny Ferry, Delonte West – well, just understand that it was the man screaming loudest with LeBron out the door, the man most determined to deflect blame onto him now.

Now, Gilbert is the tough guy with James leaving the Cavs behind? Listen, Ferry and Brown always warned Gilbert that giving James everything he wanted – giving it when and where and how – wouldn’t be the way they would keep him. LeBron didn’t respect them because they never demanded it.

Gilbert always believed he should do everything James wanted – hire his buddies into jobs, throw them on summer-league rosters, allow him to do those stupid pregame choreographed dances – that James would love him, that he would never leave. Only, James is a taker, and he took and took until he had bled Gilbert and that franchise to the bone.

So now, Gilbert unleashes the most revisionist and self-serving screed that a scorned owner’s ever done. Gilbert is a bully and a baby. As much as James, Gilbert revealed himself, too. He asked for this humiliation and deserves it. Only those fans in Cleveland don’t deserve this. They were loyal, true, and ultimately they must know Gilbert lashed out to make James the villain for a most self-serving reason: to avoid the blame himself. Damn right James quit on the Cavaliers in that playoff series, but that was because Gilbert was always there to make it easy for him. All those times Ferry and Brown warned the owner they had to make stands with James, that they had to force him to have some level of respect within that organization or there would be an ultimate price to pay.

_________________i'll never be a bowie, i'll never be an eno. i'll only ever be a gary numan.

It speaks to the unnatural, proprietary feelings fans have about their players, that just because they wear their town's jersey they forfeit all of their rights. LeBron is free to go wherever he wants, whatever suits him best. Just because he's always lived in Akron and Cleveland doesn't mean he should always stay there. Everyone leaves home sometime, even if it's only for college. Athletes have an even smaller window than the rest of us. He has perhaps 10 more years to be one of the elite basketball players in the world, and he has a mandate to win championships if he wants to be included in the discussion of the game's all-time greats. It was apparent that wasn't going to happen in Cleveland.

People want loyalty, as if that's going to cover things. Just imagine if LeBron spent an entire, title-free career in Cleveland. In 25 years, when the greats are gathered for a tribute to the all-time legends, the chatter could go like this:

"Hey, it's Tim Duncan, four-time champion.""Look, it's Kobe, wearing all five of his rings.""There's LeBron ... he was ... loyal."Awkward silence."Have you seen KG?"

Don't ask him to be loyal if you won't grant him an exception to the ring rule. (As in Jordan, Magic and Bird on one side of the tee at the charity golf tournament, Ewing, Barkley and Malone on the other).

But it's not too much to ask him to be respectful on the way out. In this case promotion took precedence over protocol. He strung everyone along, tried to build the drama at the expense of the common courtesy of notifying teams of his plans so they could get about constructing their teams.

Everyone associated with this looks bad.

_________________Gob: "My God. What is this feeling?"
Michael: "You know, the feeling that you're feeling is just what many of us call ... a 'feeling.'
Gob: "It's not like envy, or even hungry."
Michael: "Could it be love?"
Gob: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite -- it's like my heart is getting hard."

look, i'm not a cleveland fan at all. even less of a lebron fan before all this... so blame gilbert, don't blame gilbert, blame lebron, whatever...

i just want an end to the hype, because what we all just witnessed is that LBJ doesn't have it. he isn't the chosen one. he isn't 23. he has no heart. if dennis green were a cavs fan he would say, "he's not who we thought he was." i'd like to see him win as many rings as Karl Malone when it's all said and done.

that being said, I'm emailing the Miami Heat right now. I'm finally going to play point guard in the NBA. I mean, they can't turn me down if i say i willing to work for $80,000/year, right?

_________________Gob: "My God. What is this feeling?"
Michael: "You know, the feeling that you're feeling is just what many of us call ... a 'feeling.'
Gob: "It's not like envy, or even hungry."
Michael: "Could it be love?"
Gob: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite -- it's like my heart is getting hard."

I know I saw something last night on ESPN, which with its sycophantish idolatry of supposed sports heroes mights as well be called BSPN, America’s Bullshit Leader. I know I heard talking heads such as Michael Wilbon and Jon Barry and Chris Broussard (until he mysteriously disappeared) speak in empty sports babble, saying the same things over and over and over, waiting for LeBron James to be fed oversize beach balls by the once-incisive Jim Gray.

Quote:

I knew something was seriously out of kilter to begin with when LeBron’s handlers, who certainly won’t be arranging my funeral, decided in their arrogant wisdom to hold The Decision (their phraseology) in Greenwich, Connecticut, one of the richest towns in the United States. The presence of African-American kids was a nice touch. It was probably the biggest aggregation of blacks in Greenwich in history, and I was impressed by how quickly they had been shipped in.

it's starting to occur to me that this whole thing isn't about lebron at all. it's about cleveland's persecution complex. you wanted lebron to leave cleveland. deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you needed lebron to leave cleveland. you need the scorn. you need the agony. you need a scapegoat: earnest byner, john elway, art modell, jordan over ehlo, jose mesa, manny ramirez, the yankees and their money, and now lebron. anything to continue the narrative of how hard life is for cleveland, how you take your beatings and come back for more. it's your culture. it's your personality. you need it to survive. you're the mistake by the lake. you're a river on fire.

_________________i'll never be a bowie, i'll never be an eno. i'll only ever be a gary numan.

it's starting to occur to me that this whole thing isn't about lebron at all. it's about cleveland's persecution complex. you wanted lebron to leave cleveland. deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you needed lebron to leave cleveland. you need the scorn. you need the agony. you need a scapegoat: earnest byner, john elway, art modell, jordan over ehlo, jose mesa, manny ramirez, the yankees and their money, and now lebron. anything to continue the narrative of how hard life is for cleveland, how you take your beatings and come back for more. it's your culture. it's your personality. you need it to survive. you're the mistake by the lake. you're a river on fire.

_________________Gob: "My God. What is this feeling?"
Michael: "You know, the feeling that you're feeling is just what many of us call ... a 'feeling.'
Gob: "It's not like envy, or even hungry."
Michael: "Could it be love?"
Gob: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite -- it's like my heart is getting hard."

it's starting to occur to me that this whole thing isn't about lebron at all. it's about cleveland's persecution complex. you wanted lebron to leave cleveland. deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you needed lebron to leave cleveland. you need the scorn. you need the agony. you need a scapegoat: earnest byner, john elway, art modell, jordan over ehlo, jose mesa, manny ramirez, the yankees and their money, and now lebron. anything to continue the narrative of how hard life is for cleveland, how you take your beatings and come back for more. it's your culture. it's your personality. you need it to survive. you're the mistake by the lake. you're a river on fire.

I'll "agree" that there's a possibly unhealthy level of negativity/gallows humor/pessimism, also understand the circumstances. All the shit you listed (and more) actually fucking happened-- no need for a scapegoat (and really, scapegoat for what really?)

These are people who's parents/grandparents built this fucking country (and fuck yeah, Detroit+Pittsburgh ) The only thing they ("we", but I haven't lived in CLE for 20 yrs) have left is fucking pride in the ability to persevere.

Quote:

you take your beatings and come back for more. it's your culture.

Yeah... You'd rather they be a bunch of pussies?

Actually this whole thing has caused a lot of introspection for me personally. I mean, am I selling out Cleveland by not living (and trying to work) there? Am I being a pussy for trying to live somewhere where I can earn a living in my "field(s)" ?

I don't blame the motivation for wanting to leave, I blame the callous, shallow way it was done.

Not to mention: who pays for the fucking stadiums/arenas for these assholes?

_________________Gob: "My God. What is this feeling?"
Michael: "You know, the feeling that you're feeling is just what many of us call ... a 'feeling.'
Gob: "It's not like envy, or even hungry."
Michael: "Could it be love?"
Gob: "I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it's the opposite -- it's like my heart is getting hard."

I blame Lebron for saying he would bring a championship to Cleveland, then quitting in the Boston series. After blowing them out on their home floor, it was all there for the taking. But the "king" decided his personal issues (whatevr the fuck they were) were more important, so he shut himself down like a petulant little boy to prove some point to somebody, resulting in Boston coming back to win the series. Now, he ducks out because he can't take the pressure. His lack of integrity is not surprising, look what he comes from. I don't blame him for that, anyway. Miami = trainwreck in 2 years or less. Chicago = next championship team, if the owner keeps his good players around for a change.BTW, this whole Cleveland thing started to unravel when Boozer the Loozer left. Boy, he's havin' a helluva career, ain't 'e? At least he went to the right team finally.

People who wonder how Kobe Bryant would have handled this have short memories. He strung everyone along before his opt-out summer of 2004, just as LeBron did. He had the Bulls, Knicks and Clippers come meet him, just as LeBron had teams meet him. (Although at least Kobe's pursuers got to go to Newport Beach instead of Cleveland). Two years later, Kobe changed his number, just as LeBron will next year. So it's a mistake to say Kobe wouldn't have done it the way LeBron did it. He has.

...

Kobe is older now, and doesn't see the need to publicize every move. In 2004 he also caused an announcement of the announcement, sending word through Jim Gray that he would make his decision known the next day at noon, then milking one last day of drama before re-signing with the only team he'd ever played for, in the only place it made sense for him to continue playing.

...

Kobe's self-centered 2003-04 season came when he was the same age LeBron is now: 25. LeBron is still Kid James. Nothing screamed that louder than the Cleveland Plain Dealer's report that the Cavaliers' presentation to LeBron included a customized cartoon featuring LeBron and his friends. Think about that: A franchise thought the best way to gain the right to make a $120 million investment in a player was to show him cartoons?

_________________i'll never be a bowie, i'll never be an eno. i'll only ever be a gary numan.

don't forget also though, that kobe ran both shaq and phil jackson out of town because he wanted to be alpha-dog so bad. he didn't go to another team (or stay with the lakers) because he was worried about having to score 30 pts a night.

just so we're clear:i don't like jordani don't like kobei'd take thomas, dumars and laimbeer over wade, james and bosh any day of the week.